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  • Constant training of the Extension Service in different coffee departments and municipalities contributes to ensuring not only coverage, but impacts that improve living conditions of farmers and their families.

The Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), through its educational arm, the Manuel Mejía Foundation (FMM), has just graduated 34 new members of the Extension Service, whose about 1,500 committed men and women are the main vehicle for knowledge transfer to Colombian coffee growers.

For six weeks, the 34 extensionists (two per each of the 17 coffee departments) were trained in person in the venue of the FMM in Chinchiná, in the Caldas department, with field practices and a visit to the neighboring National Coffee Research Center (Cenicafé).

The objective was to tune them with the needs of the new 2015-2020 FNC Strategic Plan, approved in the last National Congress of Coffee Growers, by training them on adaptability to climate change, certifications, traceability, added value, cost management, marketing and environmental sustainability, among other topics.

“We wanted to give them a deeper and more comprehensive training that translates into an improved impact on farmers’ quality of life, either because they can increase productivity or climb the value chain,” Húver Posada, the FNC National Leader of Rural Extension, explained.

Continued education and training of the Extension Service in different coffee departments and municipalities is a way to ensure not only coverage of over 950,000 hectares of coffee in Colombia, but an impact on producers’ living conditions.

It is worth reminding that, since 2003, the FMM also has virtual training courses and many of the 34 extensionists had already taken them, but in this case the FNC wanted to provide a more practical course. They received the final part of their training at the HQ of Cenicafé, the scientific research and technological development arm of the FNC.

Recently, as part of continued training of the Extension Service in different departments, extensionists from Pitalito and Acevedo (Huila) were trained on occupational safety; Risaralda extension agents were trained on coffee cupping, markets and fertilization, and members of the Extension Service from the Magdalena Committee were trained on strategies to install plots under the Participatory Research Program (IPA).

The Extension Service provides technical assistance to coffee farmers and transfers the scientific knowledge and technological developments generated by Cenicafé regarding coffee growing.

Because of their holistic training, adaptability to field realities and producers’ needs, commitment, closeness to farmers, the trust they inspire, and social fabric construction, the FNC Extension Service has been recognized as a worldwide model by international observers.

Constant training and updating

Some of the many courses taken by Colombian extensionists as part of their extensive and interdisciplinary training are:

  • Computing.
  • Coffee institutions.
  • Coffee tree.
  • Climate and coffee production.
  • Soils.
  • Coffee production systems.
  • Good agricultural practices.
  • Ecological wet milling.
  • Specialty coffee.
  • Extension and communication.
  • Community participation and organization.
  • Project formulation.
  • Mediation in communities.
  • Coffee business.
  • Farm management.
  • Fertilization.
  • Integrated rust management.
  • Coffee agroforestry systems.
  • Integrated CBB management.